Tucson to Phoenix to Flagstaff

Karen and Dennis' nice pool!

Karen, Aunt Dorothy and Ken

On Wednesday, Karen, Ken and I visited Karen's mom, Dorothy. We saw her beautiful apartment complex and lovely apartment before heading to dinner. Ken enjoyed catching up with his aunt after so many years (probably 20!), and I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with her. After dinner, Karen, Ken and I did some grocery shopping before heading back to her house.

Allison and the kiddos

On Thursday morning we spent a couple of hours chatting with Karen and Dennis and Andy before we left. We also said our goodbyes to Allison and the kiddos, Noah, Lincoln and Liberty. What a great time we had enjoying their company and hospitality...we will certainly miss them and Karen and Emory as we continue our trip.

Ken, Karen and Dennis

We headed north out of Tucson on our way to Phoenix to visit Ken's nephew, Stephen and his wife, Cathy, as well as Stephen's mom, Norma. We spent a relaxing day and a half chatting with the three of them and petting their 4 adorable dogs. But we forgot to get pictures!

Woody Mountain Campground
security

On Saturday, after a fantastic breakfast with Stephen, Cathy and Norma, we headed out towards Flagstaff, where we set up camp at Woody Mountain Campground, a pretty place with very tall Ponderosa pine trees. Our neighbors, Joe and Yumi, welcomed us and we swapped stories with them about where we all had traveled from and what we enjoyed seeing along the way. They also gave us some tips about some of the sights north of Flagstaff (locally just called Flag), before Ken and I ventured into the little downtown area.

First, we found a great restaurant, Galaxy Diner, where we dined on a meatloaf sandwich and a turkey reuben. Yum. Double yum. The diner is perfectly located on Historic Route 66 and it offers traditional diner fare in a 50's themed setting. The walls were plastered with pictures of Marilyn, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and others. It was very charming. We would have ordered an old-fashioned shake, but we were stuffed.

Flagstaff Visitor Center and Amtrak Station

We found the visitor center in the old train station and were immediately inundated with brochures and suggestions from Jenny, one of the friendliest and most helpful visitor center guides we've so far met. She pointed us first in the direction of the historic section of Flagstaff, and also gave us a mountain of information about sights to see within a two hour radius around the town. Jenny was also nice enough to give us a bunch of restaurant recommendations.

Mixed message protesters

We quickly found a parking spot in the historic section and began walking around, ducking into little shops here and there. As we came back toward the center of town, we encountered a civil protest march through the downtown streets complete with police escorts at the front and back of a several hundred person parade. The protesters were marching for an enormous variety of causes...human rights, civil rights, domestic violence, censorship, racial profiling, border issues, water conservation and on and on. Focus, people, focus. Since they were snaking their way through short blocks of the downtown, we were hamstrung several times trying to make our way out.

We retired to the coach for dinner and to plan our next several days of adventures.